Many short range radio frequency (RF) wireless links are established after reception of an association request from an RF beacon. For secure RF communications, an association response initiates the authentication process. However, transmission of the authentication response typically requires transmission of sensitive device specific information, such as a devices Media Access Control (MAC) address and/or the device credential information, thereby revealing the private information of the device even before authenticating the RF beacon.
For example, many automobiles today include diagnostic and prognostic circuitry which monitors the state of health of the vehicle, storing state of health information for use by a facility when diagnosing and servicing a vehicle. It is preferable that authorized facilities, such as vehicle dealer service facilities, can access the state of health information wirelessly through a service drive application via a short range RF wireless link such as WiFi when a vehicle is brought in for servicing. In this manner, dedicated state of health data ports are not required while enabling a quick diagnosis of the vehicle and correlation of the vehicle's state of health with the vehicle's service history. In order for the authorized facility to access the vehicle's state of health information, the facility must first authenticate communication with the vehicle which requires the vehicle to transmit sensitive vehicle specific information such as the vehicle's Media Access Control (MAC) address and the vehicle's electronic certificates.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus for protecting the privacy of vehicle specific information while allowing secure transmission of vehicle specific information. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.